Various electronic storage media are accessed using a read/write head assembly that is positioned in relation to a storage medium. The read/write head assembly is supported by a head actuator, and reads information from the storage medium and writes information to the storage medium. The distance between the read/write head assembly and the storage medium is typically referred to as the fly height. In order to increase the recording density in hard disk drives (HDDs) and other storage systems, the physical spacing between the read/write head assembly and the storage medium has been reduced to 2 nm or less.
Control of the fly height is thus important for proper operation of a storage system. In particular, increasing the distance between the read/write head assembly and the storage medium typically increases intersymbol interference, which may impair the ability to properly read the information that was originally written to the storage medium. A fly height that is too small, on the other hand, can result in excessive wear on the read/write head assembly and/or a premature destruction of the storage device.
At times, the read/write head assembly may come into contact with the storage medium resulting in potential impairment of the data integrity, as well as possible damage to the storage medium and/or the read/write head assembly. A number of techniques have been proposed or suggested for detecting contact between a read/write head assembly and the storage medium. For example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/031,671, filed Feb. 22, 2011, entitled “Systems and Methods for Medium Contact Detection,” incorporated by reference herein, discloses systems and methods for detecting contact between a read/write head assembly and the storage medium in the digital domain.
Nonetheless, a need remains for improved techniques for detecting contact between a read/write head assembly and the storage medium in the digital domain.